Islamabad, April 21 (TNS): Afreen Afreen famed Singer Momina Mustehsan took to Twitter in the wake of the Meesha Shafi & Ali Zafar scandal. She wrote that why a woman needs to stand up and speak for herself. “We are speaking because we have no choice. We don’t have anyone else to speak for us.”
After Pakistani singer, Meesha Shafi and other women came up with sexual harassment allegations against singer-actor Ali Zafar, now it is singer Momina Mustehsan who has opened up about being harassed. But instead of revealing more about what she had to go through, the singer has requested the ‘offenders’ to respond to women’s ‘#MeToo’ with ‘#ImSorry’. Also, she has requested Zafar to “acknowledge his fault” if he is guilty and “apologise unconditionally”.
The singer who became an overnight sensation after crooning “Afreen Afreen” with noted singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan took to her Twitter handle and posted a long note where she mentioned, “I have been reading one question frequently ‘why wait so long before saying anything?’ and the answer to that is, It’s because rather than shame the perpetrator, society at large tends to shame the victim. There is also immense social pressure to ‘not say anything’, and keep matters like this private because some people may immediately question the woman’s character, for their own defense, and drag women through courts and humiliate them, knowing fully well that it is impossible to prove cases of physical harassment, hence forcing some women to eventually have no option but to pull back their cases. This affects families, lives, careers, all of it.”
Adding further to it, Momina who has also sung Ek Villian’s popular number “Awari” wrote why a woman needs to stand up and speak for herself. “We are speaking because we have no choice. We don’t have anyone else to speak for us. I ask you to please think of it from our point of view. Place yourself or someone from your family in our position for a moment, and you will immediately know what we are feeling and have been feeling, for years,” quipped the young singer.
Meesha Shafi on Thursday tweeted, “I have been subjected, on more than one occasion, to sexual harassment of a physical nature at the hands of a colleague from my industry: Ali Zafar.” In his defence, Zafar who is known in India for his films like Dear Zindagi, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, Tere Bin Laden and Chashme Baddoor posted an official statement and wrote, ”I categorically deny any and all claims of harassment lodged against me by Ms Shafi.” (TNS/Indian Express)
